Progress in Gaza?

Can a Gaza truce that would open the border crossings and end the siege really be close? Certainly the Hamas leadership needs to get aid flowing, and a deal along the lines proposed could give both sides an opportunity to claim victory: Israel to assert that its military operation ended the rocket fire, and Hamas to say that its resistance led to opening the border crossings. But any truce is going to be fragile by definition, so long as one person with a homemade rocket (many of the Qassams are made out of pipes and such) can upset the whole apple cart.

One also has to wonder about reports that the Hamas leadership on the ground in Gaza, around Ismail Haniyya, is awaiting approval by the leadership in Damascus: at what point does the population of Gaza remind Haniyya that he was elected in a popular vote, not appointed by Khalid Meshaal?

On the other hand, I think it's worth remembering that Israel is in the runup to elections on Tuesday, and the polls are showing Likud in the lead, but with narrowing margins. The outgoing Kadima-Labor government would very much like a breakthrough in Gaza just before the election, no doubt, so the leak could also be either political spin or even wishful thinking.

I'll comment more on this as it progresses, and will have more later today on other subjects. Stay tuned.